Musings of a ’80s Child

June 12, 2008

Calvary

Comments Off on Musings of a ’80s Child


So… stuff has been crazy lately, yeah? Tornadoes and massive flooding in Illinois, Iowa and Michigan; heat waves out East; and fires out west. Lest we think America’s being targeted by Mother Nature, there’s typhoons and earthquakes in Asia. Countless lives and property lost. All this in addition to the housing market declining and unemployment climbing along with oil and gasoline. Foreclosures are up, stocks are down. Corn and food prices have soared in the midst of all of this.

My wallet and the news don’t seem to have much good news to report lately. Earlier yesterday, I belied my age of 27-years-old by thinking what I have heard often from people much older than I: “It was never this bad when I was younger.”

But then, I thought about it some more. I think we have a tendency to look at life through rose-colored glasses, especially when it comes to our childhood. Life, often times, was much simpler because we didn’t have as much on our plate (can someone take my bills away from me please?) and we simply weren’t as aware of the world around us. Vacations with cottages and lakes in the lazy summers. Snow fun and toys at Christmastime. The only troubles we really had were to pass our classes and avoid getting in trouble with Mom and Dad.

This point was driven home to me this morning in a New York Times article that talked about 1980s cartoon characters (along with cartoon mainstays from Warner Bros. and Disney) getting a facelift for modern times. The relevant quote: “For parents, nostalgia is considered a bigger sales hook than ever because of the increasingly violent and hyper-sexualized media landscape. ‘It’s a terrible world, and modern parents [i.e., parents who were born around 1980] are trying to cocoon their kids as much as possible,’ said Alfred R. Kahn, chairman of 4Kids Entertainment, which also manages franchises like Pokémon and the Cabbage Patch Kids. ‘What better way to protect them than wrapping them in nostalgic brands?'”

What better way indeed? I grew up with Cabbage Patch Kids and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” who were as wholesome as they got. I’d rather give those to my children than those Bratz girls. But you know, I have a sneaking feeling that every generation says that about their own generation. I bet there’s a few of you who are older who think the same thing about REAL wood Lincoln Logs or “Leave it to Beaver.” And I’ll bet there are others who are even older who think the same thing about “Amos ‘n’ Andy” and vow there’s nothing better than playing with real metal toys than the plastic stuff nowadays.

I do agree, though, that the world does seem different to those of us who have been walking in it for some time. The Bible explicitly shows that there will be “signs of the times” as we get closer to Jesus’ return (see Matt. 16:1-4 for such an example) and we, as Christians, need to always keep an eye to the sky. However, as angry as Mother Nature seems to be lately, we need to remember that there have always been extreme tough times in the past that have tested our mettle and caused us to fear where the world was going (the Great Depression, both World Wars, massive influenza outbreaks, the Dust Bowl, 9/11, and on and on…), and in each of those times, we rose to the challenge by praying, looking to God for guidance, marching forward and pulling each other up, no matter what generation they were from.

This time, just like any decade now and in the past, is no different.

-Matt




Archives